Heating mill

A heating mill is a combination of a wind generator (i.e. a small wind turbine ) and a heating element .

Theoretically, the combination is just as conceivable with a water wheel ; However, since the operation of such systems is linked to the presence of a nearby running water, this type of construction has hardly spread.

functionality

The electrical energy generated by the wind generator varies, depending on the wind load, not only in its output and current strength, but also in voltage and frequency. Since the public grid allows only minor fluctuations in the latter, a complex and expensive technology ( converter , voltage converter ...) is necessary for a feed . The same applies to the supply of electrical devices in stand - alone networks or systems .

In contrast to most other electrical appliances, heating resistors work relatively independently of such fluctuations. The generator can therefore be connected directly to a heating element. In most cases, this is the heating cartridge in a hot water storage tank . However, such heating elements can also be installed in buffer storage tanks to support the heating system, or they can be used as heating registers for air heating.

A variant that is now ready for the market thanks to increasingly cheaper power electronics are alternating, bivalent systems that can switch to network- parallel operation after the storage tank has been fully charged to its target temperature and thus earn the operator feed-in tariffs.

literature

• Winfried Halbhuber: Operation of small wind turbines - an overview of the market, technology and profitability . GRIN Verlag for academic texts, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-58796-4 .